Memoirs, asylum seekers, hurricanes and sexual harassment. What else has piqued your media interests lately?
Politics
Racebending and Cloud Atlas
Variety described the notion of white actors playing Asians as “exciting,” suggesting that the Wachowskis “put the lie to the notion that casting — an inherently discriminatory art — cannot be adapted to a more enlightened standard of performance over mere appearance.” The irony of this declaration is overwhelming — praising a film for “enlightened” casting choices that merely replay old discriminatory practices.
Fallacy Watch: No True Klansman
I may have contributed to a new term for a rhetorical ploy we see more and more. Here’s how it happened – I’m rather proud of this coinage, but wonder whether we may be reinventing the fallacious wheel. Is there an already apt term in rhetorical jargon?
Lazy vicious marginalisation from Vagenda at New Statesman
My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.
~ Flavia Dzodan, on Tiger Beatdown 2011/10/10
Are you noting a distinct lack of attribution there from Vagenda, for an ‘oft-quoted phrase’ which is easily googled as to its source?
As if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s what happened next:
Media Circus: fewer horses and bayonets edition
I just had to use that in a post somewhere! What’s piqued your media interests lately?
Quicklink: how to respond when you see some sexism happening
NWN wants suggestions for more responses and more incidents requiring responses in comments – go for it!
Privacy, anonymity, pseudonymity, outing, accountability: where are the boundaries?
There are competing ethical imperatives, and there’s a balance to be found. It is basic courtesy to respect a pseudonym or some in-confidence knowledge about a person generally, but should that expected courtesy take precedence over the protection of other people from harm which could be avoided if they knew what you know?
Now the Dust has Settled
Has anyone else been feeling insultingly patronised by the MSM this past week? The embarrassment of completely misreading the wider impact of the Prime Minister’s speech (you know, that one) was such that most high-profile newspaper columnists spent the rest of the week explaining to readers exactly why we were the ones who didn’t get it, not them. They understood better than us because they were thinking about – Context!
Dic abuse – prescriptivists vs descriptivists rematch – ‘misogyny’ definition edition
When you get to my age seeing the pearl-clutchers swoon angrily over dictionaries having the temerity to change something gets old, especially when it’s yet another round of people just showing that they don’t understand what lexicographers actually do.
Media Circus: personality politics edition
Yeah, I know that’s generally how the MSM coverage falls out most of the time, but it’s ratcheted up a few notches in recent weeks, hasn’t it? As usual for media circus threads, please share your bouquets and brickbats for particular items in the mass media, or highlight cogent analysis elsewhere, on any current sociopolitical issue (the theme of each edition is merely for discussion-starter purposes).
Hoyden About Town 